Sticks and Stones...

"A Twit"
"Cowardly"
"El Esposo Gordo"
They sound like humorous enough insults from afar. But according to the current issue of National Geographic magazine these insults were considered going too far by governments around the globe. These examples of insult laws, provided by the World Press Freedom Committee, show how stifled speech still is in many countries.

Insulting Turkishness is no longer a crime in Turkey, the magazine says. But insulting a public figure, or the republic's founder Ataturk, is.

The kicker? That breaking these insult laws often comes with a hefty price. Sentences have included $10 million in Paraguay and 74 lashes in Iran.